JAPONITUDE, or the expression of Japan’s decision to position itself midway between unbridled westernization and a profound respect for its timeless traditions. Through his photography, Alain Champagne demonstrates the peaceful coexistence of these two deep-seated currents which form today’s Japan.

The legacy of the Bushido, the samurais’ famous code of conduct, transcribed by Inazo Nitobe, still influences interpersonal relationships in a society bogged down by an ethic whereby order, propriety and the respect of social conventions are elevated to the status of dogma. It is therefore quite easy to fall outside the norm in Japan, despite the presence of westernization and modernity in all spheres of life. Tradition still dictates the behaviour and conduct of the country’s inhabitants.

In that same vein, Japanese landscapes inspire calm and serenity, while urban density buzzes with activity at the doorsteps of these temples of tranquility. The ancestral, the traditional, the classical and the commonplace stand alongside the avant-garde, the innovative, the eccentric, even the very odd.

Alain Champagne’s photography reflects this state of mind marked by an incredible dichotomy opposing the daily lives of the Japanese, their vision of the future, their ability to imagine and innovate to the quasi-doctrinal respect of their ancestral and traditional values, a dichotomy present as much among Japan’s youth as among its elders. JAPONITUDE bears witness to this fragile and constantly-threatened balance.